Posts Tagged ‘the Bible’

He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers. John 10:3b-5

There are many voices clamoring for our attention, but there is nothing more worthy of consideration than the voice of God’s Word and the voice of the Holy Spirit. You can be led by the Holy Spirit. It’s not just for people with an unusual spiritual aptitude. You are created to be a conduit of the anointing and power of the Holy Spirit, to hear from God and be a creative thinker. We live in a world where people are hungry for answers. In darkness, they are turning to psychic hotlines and horoscopes, which are just poor counterfeits for the one true voice of the Holy Spirit.

This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success. Joshua 1:8

God wants us to get hold of the realities of His Word and be full of fervency and awareness—listening to, gazing upon, and meditating on the Scriptures. When you get in this Book and pay attention, it will give you wisdom to know what is of God. Some of you need to get back in the promises of God, to turn off the TV and spend a moment in the Word. You don’t have to try to read the entire Bible at every sitting. Study the Proverbs. Read about Creation in Genesis. Study the New Testament.

Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life. Put away from you a deceitful mouth and put devious speech far from you. Let your eyes look directly ahead and let your gaze be fixed straight in front of you. Watch the path of your feet and all your ways will be established. Do not turn to the right nor to the left. Remove your foot from evil. Proverbs 4:23-27

Before great opportunities, we have to get tuned up. As you renew your mind in the Word, your thought life won’t be so easily highjacked by distractions and you’ll be able to tune in to the Holy Spirit to receive wisdom, clarity, decision-making ability, and healing. Consider yourself a resource in the hands of God. Develop what God has given you. Don’t let the voice of your need crowd out what God’s trying to say to you. Don’t let the voice of opportunity try to get you to do something else when God’s disciplining you to stay on the task He’s called you to fulfill. There are opportunities knocking in 2012. Get ready!

For if anyone is a hearer of the Word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. James 1:23-24

Our most valuable possession is our identification with Christ. But some of us have lost sight of what we really have and who Jesus is in us. We need to go back to the mirror of the Word to address this spiritual amnesia.

The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. Psalm 19:7

The treasure of the Bible is worth more than anything you can find in life. God’s Word brings us out of ignorance and into wisdom. It restores us. It gladdens the heart! (Psalm 19:8). David writes that the scriptures “are more desirable than gold” (Psalm 19:10), and Psalm 119:162 says: “I rejoice at Your Word, as one who finds great spoil.”

But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. 2 Corinthians 3:18

Before Jesus, there was a veil over our hearts, but “whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away” (2 Corinthians 3:16), and we see in the mirror of the Word that we are new creatures on the inside (2 Corinthians 5:17). Like the moon reflects the sun’s brilliance, we reflect Jesus as we get in the Word and spend time with Him.

But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does. James 1:25

The Word of God is always powerful—it does not return empty without accomplishing what it sets out to do (Isaiah 55:11). This ought to inspire every one of us to action. We can prevail in life, we can see our prayers answered, and we can overcome. We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us (Philippians 4:13). We’ve been set free from sin to have a renewed life, to walk with vision and purpose.